Contracts, covers and children's books

Book News:

Great news on the book front! My first (and so far only) children's story has been accepted for publication by DWB Children's Books, so I've sent back the contract, the final edits and the cover art form to them today. Well, goodness me - who'd have thought it? It's a story about a girl who can't speak, a tricky confrontation with a school bully and a very magical nun. I've considered the options long and hard, and have decided (though I've always promised myself it was something I'd never do - but, hey, gals are entitled to change their minds, you know) to publish the story under a pseudonym, particularly bearing in mind the subject matter of my more adult fiction. Choosing the name today felt very strange, and rather displacing, but now I've got more used to it, it actually feels rather liberating. And, in many ways, it's not too far from who I actually am - just a different emphasis on it. Gosh, a whole new name I can write under! Maybe there's a sequel in me yet ...

Ooh and I've just seen that the cover art for gay thriller A Dangerous Man has made it to Round 3 of the 2011 Rainbow Awards Cover Contest and is currently lying at joint 3rd place in the Jury Vote. It probably won't make it through to the next round then, but it's been lovely being up there for a while, that's for sure.

This week's meditation poems are:




Meditation 584

Everything finds its place
from the highest hill
to the smallest blade
of grass.

It will come to pass
when all things fade
that we are bound still
by grace.




Meditation 585
The music of linen
encompasses the skin
with notes and crotchets
and quavers

so every movement
sings a story out
to the listening air:
a breath one savours.




Meditation 586
When a greater light lives
in our darkness and cloud

everything shifts
to what it should not be

so a measured silence is found
in the bomb’s cruel blast,

the tongue’s sweet luxury
in the strictest fast

and the aroma of hope
in rank despondency.

And all we dream of
becomes what is allowed.


Life News:

We've been attempting to sort out our finances more sensibly over the last couple of weeks, which has proved tricky in some ways. I think we're getting there though, and are even trying to squirrel away a tiny amount of savings in the midst of all this spending here and there. Hmm, best wish us luck then!

Today the tree men have been round (which has given me a few enjoyable Diet Coke break moments, I must say - maybe it's my age?...) and removed our two monstrosity hedges, two of our overgrown trees and two elderly yews from our front and back gardens. What incredibly polite young men they were too. So now the garden looks utterly fantastic - it's really opened up the space and gives us a heck of a lot more to work with. And it's made my lovely neighbour very happy also, as he gets rid of that terrible hedge as well. A win-win scenario indeed.

Tonight, K and I are off to the theatre to see The Holly and the Ivy - so that should be good. One vicar, two irritable aunts and an errant daughter? Sounds so me, dahlings, and in oh so many ways ...

Anne Brooke
The Thoughtful Corner